We left Hedvi at 7:30am and followed an up-and-down road till Rohile. Jaigad was visible across the creek from here but there was no boat. We had to take our cycles along the beach to Tavsal for the boat. But this beach stretch is not as idyllic as the one from Murud (II) to Burondi. There were two places where rocks jut into the sea and the cycles had to be carried over them. The second one was more dangerous, as the rocks were slippery and sharp, and the sea beside the rocks was deep and thus unwalkable. We suffered some cuts - I had two major cuts on my forearm and leg, from a fall on the rocks. Afterwards, a kid came running to tell me he’s seen quite a few cyclists en route to Ratnagiri coming from Chiplun, but we were the first to try this route. Actually, at higher tide, this way would be quite impossible – it's best to know the tides beforehand.
At Tavsal, we had breakfast and bought coconuts from a villager who also gave us some jackfruit. At 11am we moved to the jetty where we were picked up by a passing boat.
In this creek, there is no concept of a fixed ferry service between places. Intermittently – but not frequently – a boat comes along to take people wherever they want to go, rather like a bus service. The towns here are built right up to the water’s edge and there is no beach – each house ends directly at the waterfront. One interesting consequence of this is that the boat drops everyone at their house – there are few public jetties as such. This photograph of Parva captures this lifestyle:
The people in the boat were very friendly and helpful. They advised us not to go to Jaigad, but to Saitvade, which is more towards Ratnagiri. With Ratnagiri 57km from here, they told us we might just be able to reach there by night.
On the ferry ride, I got a glimpse of a huge creature that surfaced momentarily. It had a fin on its back and was big enough to be a shark. The boatman didn’t see it but said he knew it existed but was harmless to humans. The Marathi name escapes my memory.
There was no food at Saitvade so we cycled uphill 7km to Khandala and had our lunch there. We left early (3:15pm) for Ratnagiri and the hot afternoon sun with a treeless, barren, rocky landscape really got to us. The entire surface of the hills seems to be a continuous rock and at a few places this has been cut into temple-well type structures to form seasonal or year round wayer tanks.
At Chaphe (13km from Khandala) there is a turn towards Ganpatipule (12km), a temple and beach resort. We decided to spend the night here instead of Ratnagiri, and to try another road to Ratnagiri from there in the morning.
Ganpatipule is a big tourist spot. We got reasonably cheap accomodation at some person’s place. Had expensive dinner near the temple, watched the sun go down and then retired early for the night.
Estimate of distance covered today: 39km
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